"Do you understand?" I picked up the broken gun and waved it around. "This is going to help make the werewolves extinct."
He growled; the deep, terrifying sound made me sure the earlier fight had been more playful than serious. I thought the growl was directed at me until I heard footsteps behind me. I whirled around to see two men and a woman jogging toward us, carrying tranquiliser guns.
Ah, c.r.a.p. I dropped the broken one.
"Get out of the way!" the woman screeched at me while aiming her gun at Icarus.
He rose to his feet, his bristling fur making him appear even larger than usual, but she didn"t appear cowed.
"No!" I moved in front of him and stretched out my arms. "I"m not letting you do this."
"Then I"ll hit you first." She took aim at me instead.
The male to her left reached out to stop her. "What the h.e.l.l are you doing? Those tranqs are too powerful for a human!"
"Then it serves her right. And it might teach some soft-hearted do-gooder fools a lesson. You can"t keep wild animals as pets."
"They aren"t pets," I snapped. "And there"s no way I"m going to stand here and let you murder them."
"Oh, I"ll just put my gun down then," she said snidely. "Shut up." She c.o.c.ked the gun and pulled the trigger.
Icarus pounced on me, knocking me down. I fell heavily on my side, momentarily stunned. Icarus took a protective stance over me, his teeth bared. And then I noticed the tranquiliser dart stuck in his chest. For a second, he appeared poised to pounce away from me, but then his eyes rolled, his tongue lolled out of his mouth, and he collapsed heavily, almost suffocating me. I struggled to get out from under him, but he was a dead weight.
"Are you crazy?" the man said. "You could have killed her."
She lifted the gun again, aiming at me. "She must be the one they warned us about." She advanced on me.
I was stuck under Icarus. I met the woman"s gaze; she didn"t care. I waited for the shot, but something sharp and bright spun through the air toward her. A gla.s.s kylie knocked the gun right out of the woman"s hands.
She squealed and spun to find the source. Her two companions stepped back in alarm as Phoenix strode toward them, a tranquiliser rifle strapped to his shoulder. He spun it around and shot neatly three times, hitting each one of the werewolf attackers.
"That could kill them!" I called out, still inelegantly struggling to free myself.
He didn"t look at me as he inspected their unconscious bodies. "I don"t care." The man I had first encountered began to stir, and Phoenix shot him, too. He came over and hauled the sleeping werewolf off me. "It"s not strong enough. The werewolves won"t be out for long." He reached out and helped me to my feet. "Sorry I"m late."
I was so happy not to be tranquilised that I hugged him. He had the means to fix everything. I almost relaxed-when I remembered that if he hadn"t left in the first place, none of it would have happened.
Just as he wrapped his arms around me, I pulled away and thumped him in the gut. "Where the h.e.l.l have you been?"
He held his stomach in confusion. "Why are you striking me?"
I furiously poked him in the chest. "Because you disappeared, and everything fell to s.h.i.t. The Senate tried to lock me in their cells to stop me from helping the werewolves today, you know!"
He took a step back as I advanced on him. "But I"m here. They didn"t need you after all."
"Is that supposed to make it okay?" I demanded, poking him again. "Mac is dead, and it turned out he was keeping free shifters captive. His second in command was murdered, too, and everyone I care about is a suspect. The Senate are bribing each other and forgetting to let every member vote on a decision, and the stupid paragon is insisting the werewolves be put to sleep. Permanently! Not to mention the fact the werewolves are running around slaughtering humans. Humans, Phoenix!"
He gripped my wrists and held me still. "I can see you"re under some kind of stress, but-"
"Some kind of?" I spluttered. "Are you kidding me? Are you actually kidding me? I almost got hit with a freaking tranquiliser!"
He smiled then, softening his sharp features. The fae prince"s long black-and-platinum hair was plaited away from his face, somehow making him look younger, not that the fae ever looked their ages.
I looked around. "Wait, where are the twins?"
His smile disappeared, and he looked uncomfortable. "I believe Lucia is planning on travelling home soon, but Lorcan is he wants to travel some more."
My face fell. "He isn"t coming back. Is he okay?"
"He"s fine. He just needs his s.p.a.ce."
I pulled myself out of his grip and folded my arms across my chest. "What did you do to him?"
He spluttered himself then. "Me? Why would I have done anything?"
"I can see the guilt written across your face. What"s going on?"
"We may have clashed." He sighed. "It was a misunderstanding."
"Well, at least you"re back now. If either you or Elathan had been around, then none of this would have happened. The only one capable of leading anyone is Daimhn, and she"s easily bribed with nice, muscular bodyguards."
"Haven"t you finished berating me yet?"
He sounded so earnest that I laughed. "Yes. When did you get back?"
"Today." He sounded relieved. "Lucia had a vision that the werewolves needed me, so I came straight here. Speaking of the wolves-" He pulled a whistle out of his shirt. It hung on a chain with a key and a second whistle. He blew hard. I couldn"t hear a thing.
"What"s that for?"
"It"s a warning signal," he said. "It"s on a frequency that only the wolves should hear. They"ll run to their dens and hide."
"What about the ones they"ve already taken?"
"I"ve slashed the tires of the trucks. It"ll slow them down long enough for the wolves to start waking. I don"t want to leave Icarus alone, though, and I need to give the Senate a call and force them to call off these idiots." He sneered at the unconscious humans. "I"ll just be a moment."
"What if the Senate refuse?"
His smile turned dark. "I know enough secrets to ensure they don"t."
I shivered as he turned away to find a signal. I sat on the ground next to the sleeping werewolf and scratched behind his ears.
"It"s going to be okay, Icarus," I said. "The pack is safe now. Phoenix is here, and he"s going to force the Senate to call off the madness. And we"ll figure out a way to deal with the paragon. Trust me." I continued talking to him in a soothing voice. He looked ill. His eyes kept opening and rolling, and his tongue was hanging out as if it were a dead weight. I found his pulse, and his heart was racing. "You"re going to be fine," I murmured.
"He can"t hear you," Phoenix said, approaching us.
I pretended I wasn"t embarra.s.sed. "You never know."
He sat on the gra.s.s on the other side of Icarus and crossed his legs, managing to look completely relaxed. My back was killing me, but that might have been partly because an unconscious werewolf had landed on me.
"I take it things haven"t been good of late," he said.
"It"s kind of blown up this week," I admitted. "You"re not going to leave again, are you?"
He shook his head. "My business has been dealt with."
I was dying to ask him what his business had been, but if he wanted me to know, he would have told me.
"Any ideas on how to deal with this paragon?" I asked. "He seems to have a vendetta or something. I doubt he"s going to leave this be. He caused mayhem, and people are terrified of the werewolves now. There may be attacks on this place from people who don"t know any better. They"re just too scared to let the werewolves be."
"That"s what I wanted to talk to you about, actually," he said. "I think you can help me."
"With what exactly?" I had to admit I was curious.
He blinked a couple of times, apparently surprised that I didn"t already know. "Finding the real murderer, of course."
Um. "Wait, Mac"s killer?" I asked hopefully. I really did need a powerful fae prince to be the delusional one.
He frowned. "The one who"s been killing humans and making the werewolves get the blame," he clarified. "Once we can prove the truth, the paragon will have no choice but to quiet his accusations."
"Phoenix," I said softly, "these werewolves have been killing humans. They did it weeks ago, and you covered it up. And I saw one of the bodies this time. It was torn apart. Actually, that doesn"t even come close to how badly it was destroyed. No ordinary animal would have done that. I"ve seen the werewolves rip things apart before. This was way too similar."
"But you"ve been defending the werewolves." Confusion creased his forehead. "Yet you thought them guilty?"
I held up my hand. "One werewolf might be out of control. One shouldn"t condemn the entire pack. And now that you"re here, you can make them stop."
"I"m not their G.o.d," he said with a sharp laugh. "I don"t control their minds. I help them. And a werewolf didn"t kill those humans."
"It wouldn"t be the first time."
"Yes, actually, it would."
"What are you talking about?"
He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment before meeting my gaze. "You can"t breathe a word of this to anyone, Ava."
"What is it?"
"It"s true that there was an incident. And yes, a human was killed, but the werewolves didn"t kill him. They did rip his body apart afterward, but that was simply to cover up what had happened to him."
My mouth fell open. "What the h.e.l.l has been going on around here?"
"It"s not my secret to tell," he said. "The one who killed that man did it to save a werewolf cub, and they have left the country since."
Then it dawned on me. "They left with you," I said slowly. "You took them away. Why? Was it Lorcan? Is that why he"s not coming back?"
"It wasn"t Lorcan. Or Lucia."
That took me aback. Who else did he care about more than the werewolves? "I don"t understand. Why did you let the werewolves take the blame?"
"It wasn"t my choice. I brought this person to see the werewolves, who agreed to offer their protection. The incident with the human was a surprise. The child was saved only for the quick actions of this creature. The werewolves owed their thanks; it was their idea to cover up the death and take the blame. The creature is at a greater risk of being exterminated than even the werewolves, and I thought it deserved a fair chance at life. It was only in the position of danger in the first place because I brought it to the werewolves, looking for answers to questions I had." He rubbed his face as though trying to wipe away his guilt.
"Well? Don"t leave me hanging. Who is it?"
"More like what." He avoided my eyes. "We don"t know for sure, but it may have been a demon." He chanced a glance at me. "From the book."
I jumped to my feet. "Are you serious? You set a demon free? A human-killing demon from the book that caused the sun to disappear? What the h.e.l.l is going on, Phoenix?"
He joined me, looking agitated. "It wasn"t it was a different kind of demon. Not at all what you think."
"It went on to kill a human. That"s exactly what I would think a demon might do."
"I"m serious, Ava. Think bigger. Everything was pulled into that book, higher and lesser demons alike, as far as we know. And the problem is that we don"t know enough."
"The problem is that I know too much! The Eleven claim responsibility for those books. It was supposed to keep balance, and now you"re saving monsters from it?" I curled my fingers into fists. "What if they say I have to kill it, Phoenix?"
"I took the creature away. There"s no need to panic. I"ve brought this demon to an expert who believes she is a protector of sorts."
"She?"
"Yes, she. She is not humanoid, not like anything else I know, but she helped save more than one life on more than one occasion, and I owed her a chance. I"m confident that she"s not a danger to anyone, but if it makes you feel any better, she"s currently being watched over by the expert who believes this demon either lured the others into the book or was accidentally trapped while helping track them down."
I didn"t know what to think. "This is just mental. How can you be so sure about any of this?"
"Sure? I can"t. But I have good reason to believe in what I"ve told you. If you had met the creature but I couldn"t tell you about it. I had to leave so abruptly because of the death. I heard the paragon was returning, and I needed the demon to be out of the country before he did."
I blew out a whistle. "Does anybody tell me the truth anymore?" For some reason, that question made him more uncomfortable. "Is there anything else I should know?" I demanded.
"Anything else is not my secret to tell," he said, looking as though he meant it.
"I could sleep for a week," I said. "I"m tired, Phoenix. I"m getting too old for all of this madness."
"You are very young," he scolded.
"Well, all of this drama is aging me. Badly. My back hurts. I"m covered in bruises. I"ve avoided the old Council cells twice in a week. I"ve been made an enemy of the shifter pack. I"ve been squished by a werewolf and narrowly avoided a tranquiliser dart. I"ve been in a fight with a shifter, who mysteriously died in the same spot after I left, even though he was supposed to let me champion Esther"s cause with the shifters. I"ve been called a murderer one hundred times. I"ve seen the Senate way too many times lately, and it doesn"t make them like me any more than usual, and I" I sighed. "I"m glad you"re back. It takes some of the work off my load."
He snorted, reminding me of his son, Lorcan. "As if you were responsible for any of this in the first place. And you"ll have to catch me up on the drama, but for now, I"m taking it that you"re willing."
"Willing?"
"To help me find the true murderer."
"Oh." I thought about it and grinned. "I"ll make a deal with you."
He looked stunned. "What sort of deal?"
I closed the s.p.a.ce between us. "If I help you with the werewolves, then you find a way to get the shifters off Esther"s back for good."
He smiled down at me and held out his hand to shake. "It"s a deal."